4 ms·

Russia is Turning Elon Musk into Tony Stark

52 points by ytNumbers 12y ago

astrodust 12y ago
Isn't the irony here that Elon Musk inspired the Tony Stark in the movies? http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-inspired-tony-stark-of-iron-man-fame http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/tesla-ceo-...
- jessaustin 12y ago
  Is that irony?
  - DiabloD3 12y ago
    No, irony^Wawesomeness is Elon Musk being inspired by Iron Man as a kid then him growing up to be a real life Tony Stark, which inspired the movie version.
- hnnewguy 12y ago
  >"Musk, 38, is a rocket scientist," writes Favreau. "He designed the Falcon 9...And he designed the Tesla, one of the first electric cars of the modern era." Maybe someone better tuned to this can help: is any of this remotely true? I know he started these companies, but can he really be credited with designing these things, or are we looking for a hero? Seems like a lack of credit is given to those doing the dirty work.
  - angersock 12y ago
    Yeah, that sounds like straight-up bullshit to me. It's similar to giving Jobs credit for the Apple II, iPhone, or Macintosh implementations. People just prefer to have folk heroes, I guess.
  - bayesianhorse 12y ago
    He funded and lead the design effort, which may be as difficult as any particular design job involved in it. The tone of the article is a bit enthusiastic towards Musk, but in some sense, Elon Musk certainly deserves a bit of "worship".
  - astrodust 12y ago
    He seems to be as intimately involved as Howard Hughes was in his various aviation efforts. I think credit is deserved even if, obviously, there is a much larger engineering team at work here.
rdtsc 12y ago
> In the politically charged atmosphere of a new stand-off with Russia, however, it isn't the technology that matters so much as Musk's ability to present himself as a patriot, rushing in to save his country from malevolent Russians. This sounds like a biased piece, with an agenda. I posit Bershidsky is not quite an impartial observer on this case. I can see how both ULA and the Russian would be chomping at the bit to make sure every news source has articles criticizing Musk. We'll probably be seeing pieces about Musk's personal life. Maybe he smoked pot in college, and somehow, someone would remember and then make sure to write a memoir, that will make its way into the public media. With titles like "Oh, no, our great American Patriot is a pot head" The dangerous game Musk is playing is that, besides sticking sticks in the spokes of ULA's business directly, he is painting them as unpatriotic. One thing Lockheed and Boeing don't want is to seem that. They make billions from US govt contracts. This is going to enrage them. And they might start doing shadier things than usual.
- Moto7451 12y ago
  I think you misunderstood that section. I read it as an opinion of what he should do, not as a statement of fact. Every US Government contractor should always try to be/look as patriotic as possible. My mom did a ton of print work for McDonnald Douglas in the 90s to help look good during the DC -X/Venturestar cook off.
  - rdtsc 12y ago
    That is an excerpt from the article, the flavor of the article is not objective. It tries on the surface to support Musk. Talk about "An overweight, spiteful, nationalist Russian politician named Dmitri Rogozin". However it also on a deeper level criticizes him (and the Russians for re-acting!). So if you read it carefully it is written to support ULA. How so? Here are few points: * "On its merits, the injunction should not stand." and basically talks about how most space and military related Russian enterprises are state controlled so this injunction should be lifted as unrealistic. * It is criticizing the Russians, saying they just angrily react to Musk's provocation. So it tries to shame them based on their rash decisions. * It talks about how Musk's rockets had one failure. And they did, but how ULA has many many more successful flights. Now some those things are not lies or fabrications. One of Musk's rockets did blow up. And Lockheed and friends did have many more successful launches. It is just the style it was written and ideas it presents seem biased to me. And on this topic, we probably won't be seeing any objective or unbiased articles. On a higher level, this makes for an interesting study in PR relations.
happyscrappy 12y ago
>Musk should be paying the man a salary for providing him with the business opportunity of a lifetime. Rogozin is apparently quite an idiot.
- geoka9 12y ago
  On the contrary, he's a politician riding the wave of militaristic nationalism that he helped create. Patriotism and such have nothing to do with it.
  - happyscrappy 12y ago
    It's win win win. He gets a short term political boost, Musk gets the rocket business and the US sheds reliance on Russia.
    - rdtsc 12y ago
      ULA won't let this slide. This cuts into their PR image and the bottom line (having to switch to Delta rockets).
      - happyscrappy 12y ago
        ULA will spend zero capital on PR to justify buying Russian rockets as the Russian brand will become more and more tainted as Ukraine unravels, it is a huge win for Musk, amazing considering he became a citizen just over a decade ago.
nickpinkston 12y ago
More like Howard Hughes - the 20th Century version and with aviation. Remember the Senate hearing where Hughes fought and won against the senate's (apparently) special interest influences. Musk's hearing video really reminds of Hughes' Musk: http://youtu.be/he0-SP-BnCQ?t=10m30s http://youtu.be/he0-SP-BnCQ?t=10m30s Hughes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7vu1dlow5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7vu1dlow5A
josephschmoe 12y ago
Isn't Tony Stark, the modern rendition, largely based on Elon Musk? This title could read as: Russia is Turning Elon Musk into Elon Musk.
DominikR 12y ago
It should have been mentioned that in fact, NASA suspended all cooperation with Russia at the end of March, except for the ISS. Therefore it's not a unilateral action the Russians are taking here, they are merely responding to the various sanctions the US imposed on them. I am sure, the persons involved with sanctioning Russia did know that this would be a possible reaction. It's just unrealistic that NASA could have sanctioned Russia on every aspect they don't need cooperation while expecting the Russians to keep cooperating where they need them. Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/03/us/us-russia-relations-nasa/ http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/03/us/us-russia-relations-nas...

52 points by ytNumbers 12y ago

Isn't the irony here that Elon Musk inspired the Tony Stark in the movies? http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-inspired-tony-stark-of-iron-man-fame http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/tesla-ceo-...

jessaustin 12y ago
Is that irony?
- DiabloD3 12y ago
  No, irony^Wawesomeness is Elon Musk being inspired by Iron Man as a kid then him growing up to be a real life Tony Stark, which inspired the movie version.
hnnewguy 12y ago
>"Musk, 38, is a rocket scientist," writes Favreau. "He designed the Falcon 9...And he designed the Tesla, one of the first electric cars of the modern era." Maybe someone better tuned to this can help: is any of this remotely true? I know he started these companies, but can he really be credited with designing these things, or are we looking for a hero? Seems like a lack of credit is given to those doing the dirty work.
- angersock 12y ago
  Yeah, that sounds like straight-up bullshit to me. It's similar to giving Jobs credit for the Apple II, iPhone, or Macintosh implementations. People just prefer to have folk heroes, I guess.
- bayesianhorse 12y ago
  He funded and lead the design effort, which may be as difficult as any particular design job involved in it. The tone of the article is a bit enthusiastic towards Musk, but in some sense, Elon Musk certainly deserves a bit of "worship".
- astrodust 12y ago
  He seems to be as intimately involved as Howard Hughes was in his various aviation efforts. I think credit is deserved even if, obviously, there is a much larger engineering team at work here.

rdtsc 12y ago

> In the politically charged atmosphere of a new stand-off with Russia, however, it isn't the technology that matters so much as Musk's ability to present himself as a patriot, rushing in to save his country from malevolent Russians. This sounds like a biased piece, with an agenda. I posit Bershidsky is not quite an impartial observer on this case. I can see how both ULA and the Russian would be chomping at the bit to make sure every news source has articles criticizing Musk. We'll probably be seeing pieces about Musk's personal life. Maybe he smoked pot in college, and somehow, someone would remember and then make sure to write a memoir, that will make its way into the public media. With titles like "Oh, no, our great American Patriot is a pot head" The dangerous game Musk is playing is that, besides sticking sticks in the spokes of ULA's business directly, he is painting them as unpatriotic. One thing Lockheed and Boeing don't want is to seem that. They make billions from US govt contracts. This is going to enrage them. And they might start doing shadier things than usual.

Moto7451 12y ago
I think you misunderstood that section. I read it as an opinion of what he should do, not as a statement of fact. Every US Government contractor should always try to be/look as patriotic as possible. My mom did a ton of print work for McDonnald Douglas in the 90s to help look good during the DC -X/Venturestar cook off.
- rdtsc 12y ago
  That is an excerpt from the article, the flavor of the article is not objective. It tries on the surface to support Musk. Talk about "An overweight, spiteful, nationalist Russian politician named Dmitri Rogozin". However it also on a deeper level criticizes him (and the Russians for re-acting!). So if you read it carefully it is written to support ULA. How so? Here are few points: * "On its merits, the injunction should not stand." and basically talks about how most space and military related Russian enterprises are state controlled so this injunction should be lifted as unrealistic. * It is criticizing the Russians, saying they just angrily react to Musk's provocation. So it tries to shame them based on their rash decisions. * It talks about how Musk's rockets had one failure. And they did, but how ULA has many many more successful flights. Now some those things are not lies or fabrications. One of Musk's rockets did blow up. And Lockheed and friends did have many more successful launches. It is just the style it was written and ideas it presents seem biased to me. And on this topic, we probably won't be seeing any objective or unbiased articles. On a higher level, this makes for an interesting study in PR relations.

happyscrappy 12y ago

>Musk should be paying the man a salary for providing him with the business opportunity of a lifetime. Rogozin is apparently quite an idiot.

geoka9 12y ago
On the contrary, he's a politician riding the wave of militaristic nationalism that he helped create. Patriotism and such have nothing to do with it.
- happyscrappy 12y ago
  It's win win win. He gets a short term political boost, Musk gets the rocket business and the US sheds reliance on Russia.
  - rdtsc 12y ago
    ULA won't let this slide. This cuts into their PR image and the bottom line (having to switch to Delta rockets).
    - happyscrappy 12y ago
      ULA will spend zero capital on PR to justify buying Russian rockets as the Russian brand will become more and more tainted as Ukraine unravels, it is a huge win for Musk, amazing considering he became a citizen just over a decade ago.

nickpinkston 12y ago

More like Howard Hughes - the 20th Century version and with aviation. Remember the Senate hearing where Hughes fought and won against the senate's (apparently) special interest influences. Musk's hearing video really reminds of Hughes' Musk: http://youtu.be/he0-SP-BnCQ?t=10m30s http://youtu.be/he0-SP-BnCQ?t=10m30s Hughes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7vu1dlow5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7vu1dlow5A

josephschmoe 12y ago

Isn't Tony Stark, the modern rendition, largely based on Elon Musk? This title could read as: Russia is Turning Elon Musk into Elon Musk.

DominikR 12y ago

It should have been mentioned that in fact, NASA suspended all cooperation with Russia at the end of March, except for the ISS. Therefore it's not a unilateral action the Russians are taking here, they are merely responding to the various sanctions the US imposed on them. I am sure, the persons involved with sanctioning Russia did know that this would be a possible reaction. It's just unrealistic that NASA could have sanctioned Russia on every aspect they don't need cooperation while expecting the Russians to keep cooperating where they need them. Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/03/us/us-russia-relations-nasa/ http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/03/us/us-russia-relations-nas...